It’s not as if the Department of Public Safety has been using a pen and pad to complete its reports. But come next semester, the current computer system will seem about as modern as the typewriter.

Public Safety officials will upgrade their current DOS-based record-keeping system Dec. 15, replacing it with a new, Windows 2000-based system, said Barbara O’Malley, director of Information Technology in the department of Human Services and Governmental Relations.

The Aegis New World System will allow officers to file and review reports more efficiently by using drop-down boxes instead of free fields to enter information about incidents. While searching under the current system takes time and often requires a perusal of the filing cabinets, the new system will allow for quick searches by incident type, location and other variables, said Marlene Hall, director of Public Safety.

‘The new system will allow for examination about how we deploy officers, criminal analysis and will help us rezone officers better,’ Hall said.

The system’s improved search capabilities will allow officers to map trends among past incidents and attempt to predict future incidents so officers can be deployed more effectively, Hall said.

‘What we do now is we look at trends in the past,’ O’Malley said. ‘We don’t so a lot of ‘what if’ analysis.’

A suspect search will also be included in the Aegis system, allowing officials to search the database looking for crimes that could be related, O’Malley said.

The new system is also able to flag students with potentially dangerous medical conditions, O’Malley said. When a student with a flagged condition calls 711, a warning pops up to alert officers of the potential nature of the situation.

The system’s installation is the first step of a three-step process that will improve the flexibility of the department and the mobility of the officers, O’Malley said.

Next spring, officers will be able to write reports in the field via laptop, in contrast to the current system that calls for officers to write the reports in the Public Safety office. Within a few years, the laptops will allow officers to access the records database from their vehicles.

Judy Mendel, a freshman political science and advertising major, supports the changes to the current system.

‘If it’s gonna make campus safer then I’m all for it,’ she said.

With all these changes, Public Safety officials hope to improve their ability to handle situations on campus, Hall said.

‘I think people will be surprised at the progress we will be able to make,’ she said.

Published on November 20, 2003 at 12:00 pm